Tamara Cashour
Composer/Arranger/Collaborative Pianist
Writings/Further Research
This webpage contains additional research on music topics which I have researched and/or published articles on. This research may be of interest to student historians, musicologists, dramaturgs, and composers.
1. Richard Strauss--Waltz Sequences--Thematic Analysis
Please credit the author of this analysis (Tamara Cashour) in a website page citation as a secondary reference. The primary reference is below (Bryan Gilliam). The analysis below is most cursory and does not represent a complete theoretical analysis! It is meant more as a suggestion to students of the score and other interested parties. This thematic breakdown is based on the research of the primary researcher as noted below, along with my own conclusions.
WALTZ THEMES ASSOCIATED WITH CHARACTERS from DER ROSENKAVALIER in RICHARD STRAUSS's WALZERFOLGE 1 and 2
(mm = measures; MM = Musical Markings).
Erste Walzerfolge: Einleitung und Walzer aus der Rosenkavalier op. 59 1.und 2. Akt— AV 139/TrV 227c---Themes and Usage
EINLEITUNG THEMES
mm 1-3 THEME OCTAVIAN (as libidinous lover)
mm 3-5 THEME MARSCHALLIN
mm 4-35 ACT I OCTAVIAN/MARSCHALLIN THEMES (Trills suggest Octavian’s passion)
mm 35-45 MARSCHALLIN “LOVE’S RESIGNATION/LOSS” THEME
mm 46-57 Transitional Material
ACT ONE THEMES
mm 58-89 “HOT CHOCOLATE WALTZ” -based on minuet tune from Mozart Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331:1
mm 89-118 HOT CHOCOLATE WALTZ variation (sehr fliessend)
ACT II/III THEMES
mm 119-168 SOPHIE-OCTAVIAN MEETING, OCTAVIAN VARIATION
mm 169-186 BARON LAMENTS HIS WOUND FROM OCTAVIAN
mm 187-270 THEME & VARIATIONS: BARON OCHS (Mit mir, keine Nacht Dir zu lang)
mm 271-279 CADENTIAL LINK (developed further in Act III)
mm 280-339 “MIT MIR” VARIATIONS
mm 340-359 BARON OCHS “INVITATION WALTZ” (to Mariandel) (from Act I)
mm 360-468 OCTAVIAN, OCHS “INVITATION” THEMES/VARIATIONS
mm 469-532 MIT MIR VARIATIONS
Zweite Walzerfolge (Walzerfolgen des 3. Aktes aus Der Rosenkavalier op. 59 TrV 227a---Themes and Usage
ACT III THEMES
PANTOMIME
mm 1-6 “TRAP DOOR/PHANTOMS” THEME
MM 1-5 VALZACCHI’s THEME: SETTING UP ROOM FOR THE CHARADE
ACT III DRAMA
MM 5-14 OCH’S ENTRANCE INTO GASTHAUS
MM 14-25 VARIATIONS/OCH’S WALTZ THEMES: featuring the types:
Glissando, Chromatic Sentimental, Détaché, and Hemiola
MM 25-END TRIO ACT III (MARSCHALLIN/TENOR ACT I ( “Di rigor...” opening phrase bears motivic relation to Marschallin’s “Hat mir gelobt...”) (Gilliam 2014: 111)
NOTES: The “mit Mir” tune is by far the most famously recalled of all the Waltz themes. Strauss meant it as absolute parodic buffa, yet Gilliam confirms that:
Its tremendous élan and the brilliant way in which it catches the essence of the Viennese waltz caused it to be hailed immed-
iately as a true example --- indeed, one of the finest ever written --- of the very thing of which it was originally a satire (385-6).
In the sense that Strauss could encapsulate the spirit of a city and the ethos of an era in a single ‘catchy’ tune, he rivalled his earlier namesake Johann II (a.k.a. "The Viennese Waltz King"), who would never be misconstrued as a “high modernist”, but with whom R. Strauss is nevertheless sometimes confused by the lay population!
PRIMARY REFERENCE:
Gilliam, Bryan. 2010. The Strauss-Hofmannsthal Operas. In The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss, edited by Charles Youmans, 119–35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Richard-Strauss.